Steve and Bernard appear in the Roland 808 documentary that's out on Amazon Prime in the U.S. I'm not even sure Bernard says anything, a few lines from Steve. Pretty good documentary if too long.

I liked it. It felt like a cross between the history of house/dance series they did on BBC4 (without the later "EDM" festival stuff) and those other BBC4 shows "On Drums", "On Bass" etc. I think Hooky was in the bass episode and Steve in the drums episode IIRC.
So in the 808 docu, Steve & Bernard appear quite early on, sitting next to each other.

Steve: At the time it (the 808) was competing with the Lynn and the DMX which actually sounded like drums. A reviewer said (snooty voice) "the maracas sound like a horde of marching ants". Yeah, yeah that's it, that's what's *good* about it!
Bernard: laughs

Then on the subject of Afrika Bambataa:
When we heard Planet Rock, it was like a great twist on trans europe express, i loved the theme out if it. It was just like a fantastic new look at it. Kind of like Kraftwerk go tribal, if you'd ever imagined kraftwerk doing that. It was like a really clever twist.
Bernard: ...

And that was it for NO's contribution.

BTW, although Planet Rock was rightfully covered here, have a google of Afrika Bambataa's alleged "underage" stuff. If he was a bigger name these days I suspect he would be "cancelled" by now.

The Phil Collins stuff was tedious - particularly because Another Day In Paradise was the track they focussed on. Ugh.
I guess they wanted to show how it wasn't just hip hop electro stuff that used the 808, it was also mainstream artists like Collins or Marvin Gaye on Sexual Healing.

I didn't have a problem with the film length. 1 hour 30 seemed about right. If it was only an hour it would have been like a tv episode and not sold as a film.

I actually thought the Beasties got too much time though. It took them over three minutes to explain that they recorded some beats on to a tape and then played it backwards to get a "backmasked" beat to rap over. It took me about ten seconds to type that. Meanwhile the contributions of Todd Terry and Arthur Baker combined probably took up less of the film than that.

I'd like to see a similar documentay on the 303. I guess the difference is that the 303 was mostly used in acid/ acid house tracks, whereas the 808 was in hip hop, crunk, pop, house, techno and more. So they could cover all sorts of genres.

It was nice to see Mr K, the founder of Roland and inventor of the 808 at the end of the film. A very pragmatic, good humoured guy. He said they stopped making the 808
because they used to use faulty analogue transistors that had been discarded by others in order to make their distinctive sounds. Once he couldn't get the faulty transistors any more he couldn't make the 808.

Yes, that IS strange. The Other Two have far outstripped Phil Collins in terms of critical and commercial acclaim, longevity of career, and not having a stupid fucking name in the first fucking place. Next it'll be a history of music giving One Direction priority over Jimi Hendrix. So wrong.

Edited by user 04 July 2020 08:09:16(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I'd like to see a similar documentay on the 303. I guess the difference is that the 303 was mostly used in acid/ acid house tracks, whereas the 808 was in hip hop, crunk, pop, house, techno and more. So they could cover all sorts of genres.

Agree documentary on the 303 would be well worth a watch. A sound I struggle to get bored with even after all these years, still sounds so alien.

Anyone not inclined to watch this thing on Amazon Prime may like to know that it's available on free streaming App, Plex. The app is in the Google Play store and available on Firestick too just by searching Plex with the magnifying glass. It's completely legal.
Might be on Apple too? (I don't do Apple).

Ps: content on Plex may vary according to location.